The Worship Of Multitudes
The Worship of Multitudes
Excerpted from “Heavenly Worship”
Sermon #110, December 28, 1856
When you picture Heaven, do you cringe at the thought of an eternal, boring church service? That notion doesn’t come from God but from the devil. We will worship in Heaven, but there will be nothing boring about it. It will be a magnificent celebration!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice, and let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!” Let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! 1 Chronicles 16:29-34
Have you never heard the sea roar? Have you never walked by the seaside when the waves were singing and when every little pebble-stone turned choir member to make up music to the Lord God of hosts? Have you never heard the sea roar out his praise, when the winds were reveling—perhaps singing the funeral lament of mariners, wrecked far out on the stormy deep, but far more likely exalting God with their hoarse voice?
Have you never heard the rumbling and booming of the ocean on the shore when it has been lashed into fury and has been driven upon the cliffs? If you have, you have a faint idea of the melody of Heaven. It is like “the voice of many waters” (Revelation 14:2, KJV).
But do not suppose that this is the whole of the idea. It is not the voice of one ocean but the voice of many that is needed to give you an idea of the melodies of Heaven. You are to suppose ocean piled upon ocean, sea upon sea—the Pacific piled upon the Atlantic, the Arctic upon that, the Antarctic higher still—and so ocean upon ocean, all lashed to fury and all sounding with a mighty voice the praise of God. Such is the singing of Heaven.
Or if the illustration fails to strike, take another—the mighty falls of Niagara. They can be heard at a tremendous distance, so awesome is their sound. Now suppose waterfalls dashing upon waterfalls, Niagaras upon Niagaras, each of them sounding forth their mighty voices, and you have got some idea of the singing of Paradise.
“I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters” (Revelation 14:2, KJV). Can you not hear it? Ah! If our ears were opened, we might almost perceive the song. I have thought sometimes on summer evenings, when the wind has come in gentle breezes through the forest, you might almost think it was the floating of some stray notes that had lost their way among the harps of Heaven and come down to us to give us some faint foretaste of that song which sounds out in mighty peals before the throne of the Most High.
But why so loud? The answer is because there are so many there to sing. Nothing is more grand than the singing of multitudes. Many have been the persons who have told me that they could but weep when they heard you sing in this assembly, so mighty seemed the sound when all the people sang, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
And, indeed, there is something very grand in the singing of multitudes. I remember hearing twelve thousand sing on one occasion in the open air. Some of our friends were then present when we concluded our service with that glorious hallelujah. Have you ever forgotten it? It was indeed a mighty sound; it seemed to make Heaven itself ring again. Think, then, what must be the voice of those who stand on the boundless plains of Heaven and with all their might shout, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13).
Spurgeon called upon his people to remember times of singing powerful songs to God, perhaps on those occasions when thousands gathered together and lifted their voices to the Lord in unbridled praise. Have you experienced such times of corporate praise in your life? I have.
Most people know that we’ll worship God in Heaven. But many of us don’t grasp how thrilling that will be. Multitudes of God’s people—of every nation, tribe, people, and language—will gather to sing praise to God for his greatness, wisdom, power, grace, and mighty work of redemption (Revelation 5:13-14). Overwhelmed by his magnificence, we will fall on our faces in unrestrained happiness and say, “Praise and glory and wisdom and thanks and honor and power and strength be to our God for ever and ever. Amen!” (Revelation 7:12, NIV).
People of the world are always striving to celebrate—they just lack ultimate reasons to do that (and therefore find lesser reasons). As Christians, we have those reasons—our relationship with Jesus and the promise of Heaven. “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21:3, NIV). Does this excite you? If it doesn’t, you’re not thinking correctly.
We’ll never lose our fascination for God as we get to know him better. The thrill of knowing him will never subside. To imagine that worshiping God could be boring is to impose on Heaven our bad experiences of so-called worship. Satan is determined to make church boring, and when it is, we assume Heaven will be also. But church can be exciting, and worship exhilarating. That’s what it will be in Heaven. We will see God and understand why the angels and other living creatures delight to worship him.
Theologian Sam Storms writes, “We will constantly be more amazed with God, more in love with God, and thus ever more relishing his presence and our relationship with him. Our experience of God will never reach its consummation. . . . It will deepen and develop, intensify and amplify, unfold and increase, broaden and balloon.”a
Christ’s desire for us to see his glory should touch us deeply. What an unexpected compliment that the creator of the universe has gone to such great lengths, at such sacrifice, to prepare a place for us where we can behold and participate in his glory.
Will we ever tire of praising him? Augustine writes, “As there is nothing greater or better than God himself, God has promised us himself. God shall be the end of all our desires, who will be seen without end, loved without cloy, and praised without weariness.”b
a Sam Storms, “Joy’s Eternal Increase,” an unpublished manuscript on Jonathan Edwards’s view of Heaven.
b Augustine, The City of God, quoted in Alister E. McGrath, A Brief History of Heaven (Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2003), 182–83.
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